"Labor exploitation, child sexual exploitation and begging are trafficking"

• Police operation 37 people arrested for prostituting minors in 'narco-flats' and in the Marconi estate, some residing in centers in the Community of Madrid

• Testimony One of the released minors: "They forced me to have sex with three people and they beat me"

María José Castaño

is a member of the Institute for the Study of Migration at the

and

, head of Child Protection at Unicef.

Both authors break down in the study

the hidden figures of trafficking and offer a tool to help victims.

QUESTION.

Why are victims of trafficking underrepresented in official figures?

ANSWER.

Almudena Olaguibel

: Everything that is not part of a police operation or a crime is not considered trafficking.

In addition, the victims have to self-identify as such and collaborate with the Police.

María José Castaño

: In sexual exploitation only people in prostitution are identified.

Other forms of sexual exploitation, such as domestic service, where labor exploitation is combined with sexual exploitation, are not identified.

Q. What is the hidden figure of trafficking?

R.

.: Having applied our model, 2,805.

Between 2015 and 2019 there were 3,780 victims of trafficking, but 2,805 were not seen by anyone.

For every 100 victims detected there are 388 in total.

That is, 288 would be out of identification and detection.

26% of people are being observed in trafficking processes, so that 74% of the victims remain hidden and invisible before the Administration, NGOs and society.

Be careful, we are talking about Madrid, which is where we have done the research for practicality and because the sources were here.

Q. Is it data that can be extrapolated to the rest of Spain?

R.

: As such, no.

AO

: As a trend, we think so.

MJC

: Perhaps in another community, 74% would not be the figure, but in another city similar to Madrid, yes.

What we want is for this model to be made at the national level.

AO

: Last week the Government delegate made some quite daring statements saying that only 1.5% is detected.

We dare not say so much.

What can be extrapolated is that a large part of the victims of trafficking in Spain are unidentified.

We talk about sexual exploitation, but there is labor, organ trafficking, begging, coercion to commit crimes and forced marriages.

Q. When we talk about trafficking, what are we really talking about?

R.

: Trafficking is not the exploitation itself, but the process to control that person.

There could be a crime of trafficking without the exploitation being consummated.

Capturing the person through violence, deceit or abuse of vulnerability, which does not exist only because they belong to a specific group, but because of individual circumstances.

Anyone can become a victim of trafficking.

AO

: If we only look at a label, we miss many people.

The girls from Madrid under guardianship did not fit the trafficking profile, which is: female, foreign, adult in the context of prostitution and sexual exploitation.

In the end, they were girls held, controlled, forced to transport drugs and be sexually exploited and without control over their lives because the traffickers called them to go to a house at a certain time under threats.

They did everything to be victims of trafficking and nobody has been able to see that this is trafficking, because it doesn't fit us: they are Spanish girls and in a protected environment.

In four years there were 3,780 victims of trafficking in Madrid, but 2,805 were not seen by anyone

Q. Why is trafficking only understood when there is sexual exploitation?

R.

: Because an enormous and very good job has been done to make these victims visible.

It is the majority exploitation, but labor is growing, especially for adults.

A Spanish businessman is not going to risk having a minor working in his factory because he knows that if he is caught he will be killed.

But children are a commodity for sexual exploitation and the employer does take a risk;

he makes up for having a 15-year-old girl because the sexual demand for young girls is much higher.

Q. Is there labor trafficking in Spain?

R.

: Yes, yes, of course.

MJC

: Yes, yes.

AO

: The Civil Guard told us that it had the same number of open cases of labor exploitation as sexual exploitation.

Q. You speak of the "enslavement process."

Who are the slavers and who are the enslaved?

RAO

: There is everything.

From a father who sells his daughter to a family who tricks their son or daughter into going to work in a country or sells them.

Or a network of four people.

Or a group of three...

MJC

: And people who have been trafficked before.

An important part of the traffickers who are in prison are women.

AO

: They are former exploited women who are promised that if they become exploiters they will be able to leave.

MJC

: It's the way to pay off your debt.

And since those who end up in jail are not the main responsible for the network, those who fall are the lowest links in the chain, many of whom are women.

P. Some experts say that traffickers are always ahead.

Have the methods of capture and exploitation changed?

RAO

: Yes. There are new ways of recruiting through instagram, facebook or whatsapp.

And exploitation, for example,

.

The way to prevent payments from being traced has changed: it is done in bitcoin or currencies that leave no trace.

And also with the

(dark internet).

Technology has greatly helped human traffickers.

That is why we say that technology can also be in our favor: fight against them and better serve the victims.

Q. Why is the prostitution and corruption of minors not classified as a crime of trafficking?

RMJC

: Rather, the crime of trafficking is one and the corruption of minors and coercive prostitution is another.

What happens is that these crimes should concur with trafficking, which is more serious.

AO

: If it were qualified, it would give greater protection to victims.

MJC

: The crime of trafficking creates a substantive right for the victim, which includes very specific protection: risk of being captured, psychological and psychosocial care, compensation... And it creates obligations for the State.

Corruption of minors and child prostitution do not generate those rights.

Neither forced labor nor servitude is a crime in the Penal Code, but they are connected to trafficking

P. The protection programs only appear in the regulations referring to foreigners.

Are there Spanish victims of trafficking?

RAO

: Yes, of course.

The crime of trafficking is handled by the Immigration Prosecutor's Office.

That gives you a bias.

MJC

: There are concepts to unify.

For example, forced labor is not criminalized in Spain.

Q. Is forced labor not trafficking?

RMJC

: Forced labor alone is not trafficking.

But it is a purpose of trafficking.

Q. And should it be?

RMJC

: No, because they are different things.

What it should be is a crime.

P. And it is not a crime?

RMJC

: No. Look it up in the Penal Code.

AO

: And neither is slavery.

MJC

: Forced labor, servitude and slavery should be criminalized because they are connected to the crime of trafficking.

P. Your report maintains that for every female victim observed there are 2.5 unobserved;

for each boy or girl, 5.7 and for each man, 9.2.

Let's go in order.

Of what are men victims?

RAO

: Labor and sexual exploitation.

Q. And the boys and girls?

RAO

: Of sexual exploitation, labor, forced marriage, commission of crimes and begging.

There are two girls in forced marriage.

In 2019, nine girls and five boys in labor exploitation.

Q. And the women?

RMJC

: Of all categories.

But they are not identified by other forms of trafficking that are not clearly sexual and in the context of prostitution.

And they are in domestic or work service, as in the harvesting of strawberries in Huelva.

Q. What is the application that you have developed for?

RMJC

: It is a technological tool by which victims control and share their data.

On the one hand, the web platform, which would be carried by the entities and administrations that would share verified documentation.

And on the other, the mobile, where the victims can receive and send their documentation.

It is to generate a guaranteeing and friendly space for protection and monitoring in the bureaucratic sphere.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

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